His classmates laughed, and the cheerful morning Wednesday offered no hint of the grim fate of the previous chickens at Green Street Academy. Police say some two dozen neighborhood youths kicked down the door to the coop and beat the chickens dead with sticks. Stray dogs carried off the birds.

Security cameras recorded the chicken deaths, but Montgomery said she couldn’t bear to watch the tape. No one has been caught, said Akil Hamm Sr., chief of Baltimore school police.

“I spent most of the day reassuring my students,” Montgomery said. “I just wanted to keep moving.”

Soon, her students were asking to raise more chickens. Rebuild the coop, they urged.

But vandals struck again weeks later, smashing the repairs before the class could hatch more chicks.

When summer turned to fall last year, a crew from the Constellation energy company was working on solar panels at the school. Teachers told them about the “chicken situation,” Schochor said.

So Constellation paid $5,000 for a new coop: the shingle-roofed, padlocked, red chicken house that stands today.

“A chicken palace,” Schochor said.

The school spent months fortifying the shelter. Eric Oberlechner, the school’s farm manager, built a fence topped with barbed wire. They hung a sign with red letters warning, “No Trespassing.”